After invading the PlayStation 3 and Vita with two games in the Tales from Space series, Drinkbox Studios decided to draw from a more original well of inspiration.

Mexico's Day of the Dead offers the idea backdrop, with its colourful angular art style and a rich culture mostly unexplored in other games. And who better to be the hero of a modern Mexican folk tale than a burly masked luchador wrestler?

Players take on the role of Juan, a simple agave farmer whose beloved is kidnapped by the evil skeleton Calaca on the Day of the Dead. Juan quickly dies trying to stop Calaca, and in the land of the dead finds a magical luchador mask that brings him back to life as the hero Guacamelee.

As a luchador, players will punch and grapple their way through sombrero-wearing skeletons and chupacabras in classic brawler style. There is a well-developed combo system, complete with moves to pop enemies in the air, and aerial combos to wail on them before they hit the ground again.

Combat also capitalizes on the luchador wrestling heritage with throw moves, which can be used to knock weakened enemies into walls or even other foes. An in-game shop lets you buy new moves too, like piledrivers, that offer even more punishing finishers.

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While Guacamelee draws inspiration from Mexican folklore, it also has very clear roots in the tradition of exploration-heavy platformers like Super Metroid.

Throughout the adventure, Juan will learn powerful attacks and abilities that will unlock new areas. Abilities like jumping off walls or an uppercut that acts as an extra jump will not only open new paths, but help you to look at old areas in new ways. Not to mention the ability to turn into a chicken, which hilariously still lets you fight enemies with a tiny flurry of clucks and pecks.

Of course, since Guacamelee is drawing from the Day of the Dead, players will also have to contend with swapping between the lands of the dead and the living. The visual style for both realms is striking, with bold colors and landscape changes that are both subtle and more pronounced.

Platforms and enemies can also change depending on the realm, making for even more devious battles and jumping challenges.

Guacamelee boasts some insidious platforming sections too. This is particularly true of the more optional hidden areas, but there will be plenty of times when the game will force you to creatively use multiple abilities in concert with one another to reach a platform that seems just out of reach.

It's strange to say that Guacamelee is a short game, considering that it clocks in at around 4-5 hours to complete, which can expand to 8-9 hours if you hunt down all of the secrets.

And yet, it does feel like it's over far too soon. Much of the deeper level exploration cannot be done until after you've obtained all of Juan's skills near the end of the game, so most areas appear fairly small and linear the first time you pass through.

The main thing adding length is the satisfying combat, which throws enemies at you that can actually put up a fight rather than endless fodder.

Guacamelee on PS3 also offers a co-operative play option, where a second player takes up the mask of a ghostly female luchador. In combat, a partner makes fights that much easier, as both players can toss enemies between each other and build combos from the other's attacks.

Platforming segments are a whole different beast with a second player, and it may be wise to use the drop-in/drop-out feature to just have one player jump through rather than have two players try and run the gauntlet together.

Guacamelee uses both the cross-buy and cross-play features for PS3 and Vita, letting you transfer your save file between systems. There are some minor differences from the console and handheld, most notably the absence of multiplayer on Vita.

An ability also gets remapped from one of the PS3's triggers to swiping on the Vita's touch screen, which isn't ideal, but the ability isn't used in combat or time-sensitive situations, so it isn't an interference to move your thumb from the main controls.

On a final note, Guacamelee is chock-full of small nods and references to other games, from Zelda to Castle Crashers and even the occasional Space Invader hidden in the scenery.

While these references are typically a delight to fans of those games, it borders on the excessive here. Guacamelee doesn't need sly homages to draw players in, and comes across almost as insecurity.

With such a beautiful and distinct art style of its own, a world ripe for exploration and satisfying brawler combat that is unique among its peers, Guacamelee has as much to teach future games as it has learned from the greats.